Hill Watch: Update on Budgetary Issues on Capitol Hill

Budget Committee Issues Comprehensive Response to Budget Bill
Vetoes

When President Clinton vetoed the Balanced Budget Act of 1995, the GOP
budget plan that would have balanced the federal budget by 2002, he released a
document entitled President Clinton's Reasons for Vetoing the Republican Budget
outlining 82 reasons for opposing the bill. This week, the House Budget
Committee released a comprehensive 100+ page point-by-point reply by issuing
Response to the President: Rebuttals to President Clinton's 82 Reasons for
Vetoing the Balanced Budget Act of 1995. "...The President's veto claims
repeatedly distort and misrepresent the policies contained in the Balanced
Budget Act," says the introduction to the report. "Worse, the
President's claims are at odds with his own actions. For example, he boasts of
his concern for enforcing environmental regulations even though he has proposed
reducing enforcement personnel by 400 FTEs (full-time equivalents); he touts his
'cops on the beat' program, but fails to note the program fails to assure that
funds for additional police officers will go to those areas with the highest
crime problems. Where candidate Bill Clinton promised to 'end welfare as we
know it' and provide a middle-class tax cut, President Clinton has done neither;
he has only rejected Republican proposals to carry out these promises."
More excerpts from the report will be included in the next edition of Budget
Watch. To obtain a complete copy, contact the Budget Committee at
(202)226-7270.

ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox may have thought their $70 billion gift from taxpayers
was sealed after passage of the telecommunications bill, but the ongoing budget
debate has only increased the visibility of a proposed electromagnetic spectrum
auction. The nation's broadcasters are slated to receive -- courtesy of U.S.
taxpayers -- "beachfront property" on the spectrum with the
flexibility to do whatever they want with it. Critics contend that other
telecommunications companies have had to bid for spectrum -- bringing in
billions to the federal treasury. Why should broadcasters receive their
spectrum free while competitors have to pay? Broadcasters say that they offer a
free service and if they have to pay for spectrum, then the public will no
longer get "free T.V." The broadcasters have just kicked-off a
multi-million dollar campaign to get their "no more free T.V." message
out to the public. If the spectrum is auctioned off, an estimated $70-$100
billion could be raised for deficit reduction. The Senate Budget Committee has
just announced hearings for March 14. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold
four days of hearings at the end of April. For more information, contact the
Campaign for Broadcast Competition at (202)785-0238.

Waste Patrol: Where Government Can Slim Down

94% of Education Programs Do Not Support Reading,Math and
Science, Panel Review Reveals FindingsMay Explain Why Academic Performance
Has PlummetedDespite Large Spending Increases

By now, most Americans are familiar with the crisis in education: Despite
the fact that spending per pupil has risen from $3,000 in 1970 to $5,600 today
after inflation, the average Scholastic Aptitude Test score dropped from 937 in
1972 to 902 in 1994 and today some 66% of 17-year-olds can not read at a level
considered "proficient." A review of Department of Education programs
conducted by the House of Representative Economic and Educational Opportunities
Committee may have uncovered the root of the education problem. Working with
the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Research Service, the
Committee discovered that there are at least 760 federal education programs,
administered by 39 separate agencies, departments, commissions and boards,
costing a total of $120 billion. But according to the Committee survey, just 6%
of these programs are intended to teach or support mathematics, science or
reading. Among the programs apparently deemed more important than the education
basics were a "Boat Sludge Educational Grant Program," costing $7.05
million and a "Beautiful Skylines Architectural Grant Program," which
received $3.2 million. For more information on the Economic and Educational
Opportunities Committee's findings, contact Cheri Jacobus at (202)225-4527.

And Speaking of Waste in Education...

A new study by the Alexis deTocqueville Institution (AdTI) has found that if
every item of the National Education Association's legislative agenda were
adopted, federal spending would rise by at least $702 billion annually -- equal
to an annual tax hike for a family of four of $10,554. For more information,
contact AdTI at (703)351-4969.